Load Shedding is coming (probably), how will you prepare?

[wymberley]

As said, just another '73 'Winter of Discontent'.

[ditchman]

1 hour ago, wymberley said:

As said, just another '73 'Winter of Discontent'.

year 2023 the year of Disco-in-a-tent

(cant afford the rent no more)

[Dougy]

 

We had one of these in the hallway of the bungalow i was born in, every now and then you would hear "Blub blub blub" and the "Esso Blue" would fill up the reservoir. 

[Dougy]

Hi Leadwasp, not heard from you in some time. 👍

[ditchman]

22 minutes ago, Dougy said:

 

We had one of these in the hallway of the bungalow i was born in, every now and then you would hear "Blub blub blub" and the "Esso Blue" would fill up the reservoir. 

"boom boom boom ....boom...Esso blue"🎵

[screamingdead]

2 hours ago, JohnfromUK said:

The difference these days is that many will have routers that need mains power; I suspect that with a little ingenuity, a float charged battery could be added to the low voltage DC supply powering the router.  Not looked into it, but seems a reasonable possibility to give the router backup.

Stick an APC UPS on the router, I've got a 550VA one that runs for about 1 hour during power cuts.

[LeadWasp]

52 minutes ago, Dougy said:

Hi Leadwasp, not heard from you in some time. 👍

Hey there, hope all is well your end 👍. Miss those Catton days, not sure when Senny will be up and running but I'm keeping the faith.

To keep this on thread 😇 what happened to your mega field stove - last I saw it in Eskdalemuir it was pumping some heat out with a tempting stew on top!? 

 

Edited September 3, 2022 by LeadWasp

[Dougy]

8 minutes ago, LeadWasp said:

Hey there, hope all is well your end 👍. Miss those Catton days, not sure when Senny will be up and running but I'm keeping the faith.

To keep this on thread 😇 what happened to your mega field stove - last I saw it in Eskdalemuir it was pumping some heat out with a tempting stew on top!? 

 

Still fire it up now and again, this dry spell has kept in in the bag, not worth the risk using it out anywhere. 

 

We are all good thanks, missing the long range days too. 

[JohnfromUK]

56 minutes ago, screamingdead said:

Stick an APC UPS on the router, I've got a 550VA one that runs for about 1 hour during power cuts.

It seemed to me more 'logical' to do something at low voltage, since the router itself runs of low voltage.  I have not yet looked into how practical it might be - and will probably never bother, but I suspect my router uses very little power (it runs virtually stone cold), so should work fine from a battery made of AA cells for a while.

[Newbie to this]

Keeping your router live is only good if the equipment at the other end has power also.

[JohnfromUK]

4 minutes ago, Newbie to this said:

Keeping your router live is only good if the equipment at the other end has power also.

At my end, my laptop, iPad and iPhone all have batteries (my desktop and printer will be down).  I would expect the telephone exchange (where the broadband comes from) to be fully backed up (as the telephone service is).  Possibly some smaller websites might be down when their localm power is out, but most 'host' businesses are fully UPS supplied.

[Surfer]

Prepared to sit it out ,gas grill if needed candles and torches 🔦 that will charge off a battery connected to suitcase solar panel that I bought for a caravan  ,

[bruno22rf]

For every day we are without electricity I'm going to demand my standing charge back.

[Windswept]

We had a dry run earlier in the year with the storms. Power out for 24hrs which meant all the local mobile masts stopped working which was a bit of a pain as you couldn't find out what was happening.

However, freezer was fine, heating and cooking is often done on our wood burner so no problem there. Plenty of candles, torches and camping stoves to last months.

If the mobile masts work we should be fine as we work from home, our mobile phones can be made into routers (hotspots) and charged via a battery backup if necessary.

[Blackpowder]

7 hours ago, ditchman said:

those parafeen heaters do kick out heat ...but are self defeating as you must leave a window open as they produce soooo much water vapour

No not a heater but a two burner paraffin cooker, if you wanted to roast or bake an oven with mica windows went on top of the two burners.  Yes and we did have the heaters you mentioned also.

 

Blackpowder

[bornfree]

Woodburning stove and 2 diesel generators. 

[countryman]

Not buying an Electric car.

[udderlyoffroad]

On 03/09/2022 at 13:17, JohnfromUK said:

This.  IF there are cuts (and it is by no means certain) then if I remember last time they were 'up to 3 hours', and you knew when you were at risk (by area).  It didn't always happen.  Key thing is that things like freezers are absolutely fine to endure 3 hours power outage, and most houses can endure 3 hours heating free without freezing the occupants.

Indeed.  And, judging by the South African experience, there's an app to tell you that.

Nevertheless, I can't help but feel some of you are being a little dismissive of the reality.  Are you Kelly Kettle/Rocket Stove enthusiasts *sure* you'll embrace cooking outside, in December, as it's getting dark and drizzling?  Whilst you stare at otherwise perfectly servicable electrical appliances, not to mention your house in the dark?

 

On 03/09/2022 at 17:22, Newbie to this said:

Keeping your router live is only good if the equipment at the other end has power also.

This.  The 'green cabinets' that sit by the side of the road, that are modern 'telephone exchanges' don't physically have the room to have much in the way of a UPS inside them.  Wonder how the new working from home workforce will be impacted?

 

On 03/09/2022 at 21:37, countryman said:

Not buying an Electric car.

Ummm, does somebody else want to tell him?

[JohnfromUK]

49 minutes ago, udderlyoffroad said:

Are you Kelly Kettle/Rocket Stove enthusiasts *sure* you'll embrace cooking outside, in December, as it's getting dark and drizzling?

It wasn't a big deal before - and less so now in many ways (much better battery appliances).  In rural environments, power outages used in the days of the old nationalised power system - to be common (at least once a month and unplanned) but in the last 10 years have been MUCH better as the cabling, rotten poles etc. have been replaced and much of it moved underground.  If I am warned to 'expect' a planned cut, then I will plan my hot meal around that, and if necessary fill a flask with coffee.  Assuming gas remains on, I have a gas fire for space heating.  The Kelly is quite usable on the patio outside.  Set it going and wait for the whistle (few minutes).  It's not what I would wish for, but then nor was having an invasion of the Ukraine and an 'energy war'.

 

53 minutes ago, udderlyoffroad said:

The 'green cabinets' that sit by the side of the road, that are modern 'telephone exchanges' don't physically have the room to have much in the way of a UPS inside them.

Not sure how the cabinet is supplied, but it has worked through normal power outages (storms, schedule maintenance work etc.).

[Scully]

2 hours ago, JohnfromUK said:

It wasn't a big deal before - and less so now in many ways (much better battery appliances).  In rural environments, power outages used in the days of the old nationalised power system - to be common (at least once a month and unplanned) but in the last 10 years have been MUCH better as the cabling, rotten poles etc. have been replaced and much of it moved underground.  If I am warned to 'expect' a planned cut, then I will plan my hot meal around that, and if necessary fill a flask with coffee.  Assuming gas remains on, I have a gas fire for space heating.  The Kelly is quite usable on the patio outside.  Set it going and wait for the whistle (few minutes).  It's not what I would wish for, but then nor was having an invasion of the Ukraine and an 'energy war'.

 

This. Any blackouts will be scheduled, unlike the ones we get here regularly each winter. We can go days without power locally, but we know it can happen, so even though it’s not ideal, we’re ready. 

[ditchman]

back in the late 60,s and early 70,s we had black outs..........

to be honest they were not a problem...as we knew what time the electric would go off and knew what time the electric would come on again.............so it was quite easy to plan around that........

[Agriv8]

Anyone predicting another baby boom ? 

I believe there was one after last planned power cuts - 

Agriv8 

as for planning- got camping kit in shed plus enough rechargeable torches!

sleeping bags and warm blankets also From camping.

 It will be a big shock to many if it happens!

[discobob]

On 03/09/2022 at 08:25, bostonmick said:

40k generator in the yard was putting it up for sale but may rethink that for a while.

it will only appreciate in value over the next few months!!

[serrac]

Just wondering, is it feasible to run a generator and connect the output to a domestic circuit to power the fridge/freezer and central heating controller etc?  I guess one might want to isolate from the grid to avoid trying to power up everything south of the substation, but what are the other implications of trying to do this?

[ditchman]

18 minutes ago, serrac said:

Just wondering, is it feasible to run a generator and connect the output to a domestic circuit to power the fridge/freezer and central heating controller etc?  I guess one might want to isolate from the grid to avoid trying to power up everything south of the substation, but what are the other implications of trying to do this?

you will need a good electrician to wire up a genny circuit..........most houses in africa have one ..needs to be isolated...i had them wire up a bulb which lit to show when the mains lecky came back on...so i could isolate and switch over